Day 6 - Dromoland Castle (evening)
I'm going to discuss the dinner in the evening first, and then I'll go back and discuss the day. The day was wonderful and I'd prefer to post about it without ending on a low note.
Dinner was out at a medieval banquet. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name at the moment. There are several scattered about the area. It was located within a refurbished castle. When we arrived we were greeted by the performers dressed in... medieval castle garb? They greeted you, my Lady... my Lord, and you got your picture taken with them. They then invited you into the main entrance hall and welcomed you with mead to drink. I don't think many people liked it as they had a few sips and set it aside. It was ok - sweet, honeyed from what I remember. We hung out as more and more people entered until the entrance was very crowded. Everyone who attended was a part of a group tour. So it was our group and maybe 4 or 5 others. It was crowded, but soon enough the master of ceremonies greeted everyone. There was a bit of music played, and then we were brought into a large banquet room with long rows of tables set up in front of a stage.
The food was good. Fresh bread, a salmon starter, followed by tomato soup and then a chicken breast main dish. Nothing extravagant, but the chicken was moist and had a good flavor as I remember. They served wine and insisted that all the Lords be sure to keep all the Ladies' cups filled. It was all you could drink. Again fine. Certainly the food and drink was nothing too memorable, but was ok. The neverending wine probably made the evening a bit more enjoyable.
The performances were very Renaissance Festival in style. They told jokes, and certainly there was lots of medieval style music and singing. There was a girl playing the Irish harp and there was an Irish dancer. Certainly they had fun with the audience. There was audience participation which thank goodness I did not have to partake in. The highlight was seeing a couple of our friends on the trip be asked to be the King and Queen overseeing the entire banquet. They were dressed up and seated front and center. That was funny! For their sake, I'll withhold posting a photo of them.
If you're reading and want me to post it, let me know.
That's pretty much it...
So, ok... opinion time. The event felt overly artificial. Overly touristy. The only people that were present were from group tours. It wasn't like Kate Kearney's a couple of days ago where there were some solo travelers and locals in the mix. Everyone present was shuttled there in their buses to see the performance and was shuttled back. I understand that's how group tours work, and I think I'm clearly a huge supporter here of ABD. However, this is where a group tour can go wrong. I think people that don't want to try a group tour have activities like this in mind. You're being taken to a place that exists solely to entertain tourists. It's not something I see locals enjoying. It's not really a historic landmark that you're seeing. The focus was certainly the Renaissance Fair entertainment rather than the castle. I think it's a stretch to say it has any cultural relevance. It is very contrived. Very touristy.
Even if it is created purely for the tourist trade, it still can be fun right? Of course. And if it was amazing fun, I'd overlook my first objection to it being overly artificial. But, I'm sorry, it wasn't. The entertainment was ok. It certainly wasn't bad, but it was boring after a while. I just wasn't entertained as much as I hoped to be. I think if you enjoy Renaissance festivals, you will enjoy this. And let me be clear, everyone else seemed to be having a good time. Maybe people were being polite about it, as I hope we were, but I guess most people genuinely enjoyed it.
Kate wanted to mention that she would have preferred to have a dinner or atmosphere that allowed more conversation between friends. During the day everyone did different activities. More on that later. It would have been nice to have more time to talk about what everyone else did that day. We had a little bit of time, but then the show started.
The guides prefaced the event on the way there that this was not like a typical Renaissance style dinner show. This was much better. I'm not so sure about that.
Look, some activities just aren't for everyone. And this one just wasn't for us. It still didn't put a damper on the day as a whole. And this was one heck of an amazing day! This day is what sold Dromoland and really all of western Ireland to me. It's why I want to return so much... It was an amazing day! Next time I'll probably just skip the night activity.